Pompeii, 2014

The Italian newspaper Gazetta del Sud carried a story on April 7, 2014 about Michelina Comegna, a 74-year-old wife and mother. In April of 2003 she had breast cancer surgery. As a complication of this surgery, she suffered a brain aneurysm that left her partially paralyzed. She was confined to a bed for the next 3 years. Since that time, she has not gone anywhere except in a wheelchair.

Every Sunday, her husband of 55 years, Giovanni Passaro, took her to the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, a cathedral in Pompeii. As she explains, “I always prayed to the Pompeii Madonna and Jesus to let me walk again, because it was so humiliating to have to be helped to do everything.”

On Sunday, March 23, 2014, they went again, to attend the 10:00 morning Mass. “I took communion,” she said, “and instantly felt a fire going from my feet up my legs and my whole body. At the same time, I was overcome by an intense scent of flowers. I forgot I was in church and looked around, convinced my clothes were on fire. I was covered in sweat, it was dripping from my head like water. I told my husband I was feeling an intense joy, and I needed to walk.” Her husband saw her stand up and walk quickly down the nave. “I told her to slow down, that she might fall. But she just rushed on,” he said. Passaro also said that he “never could stand to be in church more than 10 minutes. But now I have seen a great miracle. Everything has changed.”

The priest who celebrated the Mass, Monsignor Giuseppe Adamo, recalled that “she came up to me with a shaky step, held up by someone. As soon as she took communion, she started unbuttoning herself, saying she felt hot and also that she was smelling a perfume.”

The Archbishop in charge of the cathedral, Tommaso Caputo, has urged caution. “We must wait for conclusive scientific evidence,” he said. “While many prodigious events have taken place in this sanctuary by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, it is up to medical science to produce the evidence to confirm them.”

The Passaros are not waiting for any evidence. They have already had a silver etching made, which they are donating to the cathedral.